UTILITIES

Articles

IBEW members working underground have experienced sweeping changes in recent years. Private contractors are performing an ever-larger share of the work once done by public utilities. Increasingly technical equipment has put more demands on everyone. And concerns about safety linger, in part because there's been little standardization throughout the industry.

For nearly three decades, energy consumers have been sending a clear message: they want clean, affordable and reliable power. Billions of dollars have been invested in scrubbing coal, switching to natural gas and building renewables.

In Hurricane Irma’s wake, the largest power restoration force in U.S. history mobilized to repair and rebuild the Southeast, with line crews coming from as far away as Seattle, California and even parts of Canada to pitch in. With nearly 8 million out of power, approximately 60,000 line workers, tree-trimmers and support staff from 250 utilities converged on Florida, led by IBEW members, who made up an enormous share of the restoration army.

More than 10 million people are without power in the Sunshine State after Hurricane Irma churned its way up the length of the peninsula over the weekend, unleashing 140 mph winds, heavy rain and 10-foot storm surges in some coastal areas.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has rescinded an Obama-era rule that allowed union safety experts to serve as employee representatives during OSHA inspections even if the workplace was nonunion.

With winter comes snowstorms, and with normal snowstorms come power outages and emergency work for the tens of thousands of IBEW lineworkers. Even a few inches of snow and ice can knock out power for hundreds of thousands of people.

Emery Generating Station in Clear Lake, Iowa, has been
recognized as one of the best power plants in the nation and it’s due in part to
the work of its employees, many of whom are members of Cedar Rapids Local 204.

It’s a familiar story across America, especially in the Midwest: a factory closes, announces it’s moving operations to Mexico or overseas. Public officials lament the loss of jobs, families suffer – you know the miserable, all-too-common rest.

The U.S. Senate on April 20 passed its first comprehensive, bipartisan energy bill in nearly a decade, answering the calls of IBEW leaders who have been urging congressional action on energy policy for years.

Last year, New York’s James A.
FitzPatrick nuclear plant was slated to close. Now, it’s
hiring,
and it’s thanks to IBEW members and their work with partners from the municipal
level to the governor’s office.

The IBEW has filed suit to prevent the implementation of new federal regulations on power plants. The IBEW petition joins the 27 states, several utilities and two other labor unions that are already challenging the regulation.

Huddled in near-freezing temperatures on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in January 2013, observers might have been forgiven for neglecting to think about global warming. But when President Barack Obama stepped to the podium to take the oath of office and lay out his second-term agenda, he made clear that his priorities were squarely focused on the looming threat of climate change.

Members of Springfield, Ill., Local 51 in Bartonsville have operated and maintained the Edwards coal-fired power plant for generations, all through the national debate over the role that coal will play in our nation’s energy future.

More than 5,000 members of the IBEW, the United Mineworkers and the Boilermakers took to the streets of Pittsburgh July 31 to protest the Environmental Protection Act’s Clean Power plan, which they say will kill good jobs and weaken the electrical grid.

A power outage… A college graduation. They mix about as well as electricity and water. On Thursday, May 15, as thousands of visitors arrived in South Bend, Ind., for graduation ceremonies at Notre Dame University and St. Mary’s College, a transformer blew and a 25-block area of downtown went dark.